Workplace Policies and Intersectionality

As per a recent report by UNISON, women comprise half the working force in the UK, who at some stage will experience ageing and associated health changes such as menopause. Moreover, there are at present over 3.5 million women workers over the age of 5o (which makes for about 45% of the working population over 50 years of age). Despite this substantial number, there is inadequate guidance for Human Resources to help employees in this significant stage of life. In the time to come, there will be thousands of women who will experience menopause and its associated symptoms such as hot flushes, mood swings, irregular periods and more whilst working full-time. But is the workplace truly ready to cater to this substantial chunk of the workforce? Why isn’t gender specific sickness a priority?
The report outlines that workplace policies are not designed with ageing and menopause in mind and also a majority of women are still uncomfortable in disclosing menopause related discomfort to their managers, particularly if their managers are men or younger than them. Further, women were hesitant in disclosing the real reason for absence from work when they had to take time off due to menopause. In her recent report for older workers, Dr. Ros Altmann, a government Age Champion suggests that it is imperative for employers to address the sensitive issue of menopause awareness in order to overcome the ‘double whammy’ of ageism and sexism that prevents many women from participating effectively in the workplace whilst experiencing menopause.
Intersectionality (a term coined by American civil rights advocate Kimberlé Crenshaw) outlines the overlapping or intersecting social identities and systems of oppression and discrimination. These identities can be gender, race, class, age and so on. Intersectionality holds that there is no single experience of an identity. For instance, rather than analysing the issue of the health of women solely through the lens of gender, it is necessary to analyse other identities such as age, class and so on. Similarly, in the case of menopause, it is evident that women experience both ageism and sexism.
Companies such as Marks and Spencer (M&S) and Santander have started to address change of life issues as a matter of course. M&S have realised that their women staff undergoing menopause need company support. The range of support on offer includes providing specific information for line managers via the M&S wellbeing portal and referral to a specialist team within occupational health (OH), who will help to secure any appropriate adjustments required. There are robust policies already in place around time away from work, which support menopausal employees where needed.
According to The Menopause Exchange, there are several other ways in which companies can support employees undergoing menopausal symptoms. For example, providing more control over thermostat heating, moving desks closer to windows, provisions for desk fans to combat hot flushes, plentiful supply of cold water and flexible working arrangements are some of the strategies to combat workplace sexism and ageism for women undergoing menopause. It is time that instead of being viewed as a personal matter, menopause awareness becomes mainstream in organisations. It is time line managers, agnostic of their gender, are trained in gender related sickness issues and instead of being viewed as a workplace taboo, it is time that we start discussing gender related sickness openly.
